Journal of progress on my 1935 Ford pickup hot rod build

08/27/2013

Two '35 Ford Cabs Better Than One

One of the more common questions people ask about the build is, “When will it be done?”

It’s tricky to answer. There’s no schedule we’re working toward but I’d say the project is steaming along nicely. Having started in April with a bare frame we’ve already got a rolling chassis, the pickup bed is modified & the machine work on the engine should be done in a few weeks. In absence of a hard deadline I figure the truck will be roadworthy by the end of this year & mostly finished by Spring of 2014 if we maintain current pace.

So what’s next?

Starting in September Rudy at Fullerton Fabrication is moving onto one of the more interesting & time consuming (read: expensive) steps of the project – chopping & channeling the cab.

Def. CHOP

“Chopping the top" goes back to the early days of hot rodding and is an attempt to reduce the frontal profile of a car and increase its speed potential. To chop a roof, the pillars and windows are cut down, lowering the overall roofline. Some racers on the dry lakes chopped the tops of their cars so severely the windows were only a few inches tall. These were sometimes referred to as "mail slot" windows.

Def. CHANNEL

To channel a car the body is lowered over the frame by removing the floor and refastening it higher inside the body, causing the body to rest closer to the ground without altering the suspension. The overall effect is to give the car's body a more massive appearance. Each automobile would have its own engineering challenges as far as modifying the various components of the chassis.

As the chop & channel approaches Rudy & I have been discussing how to handle the process as economically as possible. The original cab I bought in April has no floor & the back of the cab was cut as a result of an earlier channel job. It has some dents to be hammered out, most of the interior accessories are missing & when Rudy starts the chop he’s going to need a few extra inches of roof & drip channel (not easy to come by). All this can be handled one way or the other but fabrication hours & replacement parts get expensive.

Alternate solution?

We decided that buying an additional 1935 Ford cab might make sense as the missing pieces it’d provide might potentially be cheaper than fabrication. So, out comes the checkbook & in comes ‘35 Ford #2 that I recently located in West Virginia. Two cabs are better than one? Sorta makes sense – or at least as much as the rest of this project does.

The previous owner had cab #2 in his shop for the past ten years as the foundation of his own hot rod project that never commenced (happens all too much). After getting it shipped out here in a 53’ freightliner I have a new toy.

Like most vintage steel the second cab is rough around the edges. Still, Rudy & I agree this one’s in good enough shape to become the primary cab that’ll be chopped & channeled.

More updates on the chop & channel soon, but for now – pics…

Here's the newest addition to the family. This '35 cab has been in storage the past ten years and while it's a bit rough it has very little rust on the doors and lower rear of the cab. The windshield cranks out perfectly and the doors open and close really well

Here's the interior. Nice that this one has a floor, toe panel and some hard to find parts such as the glovebox door. Replacement gauges from another eBay vendor already arrived. All that junk inside? It shipped from West Virginia with a selection of bonus parts included. The bumpers and seat springs are trash. The headlight buckets I'll sell on eBay. The rare '35 Ford hood section I'll probably keep

The image on the left shows the visor area inside the cab. The panels are usually missing on these cabs, so that's a bonus. Few people my age would know what the mechanical controls are for (A). That's the vacuum windshield wiper control while (B) shows the vacuum line that runs to the engine's intake manifold. Neato

Here's a comparison of the two cabs we'll be working with in September